“She does it all without a whimper for her personal needs. She is one of those people who work hard all day without whining or complaining. She does it all as an act of love for us, and without expecting anything in return.” His watery eyes revealed his torment. “I can see her smile. She fills my world to the brim with love and kindness and I don’t think she knows how much I love her. It feels as if we’ve known each other forever, and I mean that in a good way. She’s my best friend, my soul mate, and the air I breathe, and she loves Connor and me so much. I’m an utter fool because I haven’t seen what I have with them.

  “Now I want to find her so I can tell her all of that and much, much more. But the odds of finding her and Connor are becoming slim. I have such little time now and soon they will arrest me, which will consume more time. It all feels so hopeless.”

  “You cannot release hope,” Jacob said.

  Aedan looked at him through bloodshot eyes. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHARRED DISCOVERY

  * * *

  Aedan continued pounding his head against the window glass. His loss of energy and hope was evident.

  “You have faith, right?” Jacob said.

  “Yes, but I’m not sure where God is in all of this. Why isn’t God helping me find them? I don’t understand.”

  “How do you know God is not trying to help you?”

  He stared at Jacob with surprise. “How old are you? You approach this as if you’re an experienced adult, you sound like you’re fifty years old—maybe older.”

  Jacob became serious, solemn. “I am old enough to know when I see a person who has a harsh challenge they are grappling with. I can recognize heart-wrenching human pain. Do not give up, have faith in the idea that what seems impossible is possible. In our human weaknesses and fears, we often refuse to take a leap of faith and trust.”

  Aedan looked astonished by the young man’s response. “Wow, where did the European Lit student go?”

  “I’m still here.” Jacob laughed. “Tell me about Connor? You spoke in a loving manner about Ciara, but you haven’t said much about your son. I’d like to hear more about him.”

  “Oh man, Jake—“

  He interjected. “My name is Jacob, not Jake; not any nickname. Jacob.”

  “Okay, Jacob, I understand, you like your name.”

  “No. It is not a matter of liking my name; it is about accuracy. Many names have significant meaning. My name is Jacob; please use my name, without alteration.” He placed his right hand on Aedan’s left shoulder. “Please, respect my wishes.”

  A slight electric jolt raced through Aedan’s left shoulder; he pulled away from Jacob’s hand. An image of Máire in Millennium Park entered his mind. “What did you do?” he shouted, with anger.

  Jacob smiled.

  Aedan had grown a dislike of robotic smiles, and the night guard was starting to flash too many of those. He saw those smiles many times before, on Michael, Máire, and a few times on Charlie. The smile made his skin crawl.

  A clock in the distance chimed. He struggled to fight against his mind attempting to pull him down into his mental time world. He failed—he fell fully. The sickening sound of his Grandpapa’s watch consumed his senses with its, click, click, click, and its loud boom, boom, and boom. He observed his mother kneeling, praying, and weeping. He looked around the funeral home room, bursting with people paying their last respects to his Grandpapa. Strangely, he realized that he had never seen the people populating his time world before. His senses immersed in the scene as if he was present in the room. It seemed as if he could touch the tears covering his mother’s face, he could smell the chemical odor around his Grandpapa.

  In the near distance, he saw people standing together in small groups. There were aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and friends, several cried while others held somber faces. Judging from the looks on their faces, they did not seem to notice the pain little Aedan was in as he continued kneeling inches from his Grandpapa. Peering in at the scene from what seemed a camera lens viewpoint, he could not understand why no one pulled him away from his mother’s side. The pain and raw fear he felt that day came rushing back. Cruel was the word filling his senses, the adults in the room were cruel not to help him, he was just a small boy.

  Everyone in the groups dispersed; they walked to chairs and sat. Two people strode slowly toward him. He looked more carefully at them and saw that it was Michael and Máire approaching. His mind tried to grasp how they could have been at his Grandpapa’s wake so many years ago, and they did not look at all different. He could not recall them from the live event as it happened when he was four.

  Michael leaned down to little Aedan. “We are here to help, please let us take you from here and bring you to a seat.”

  Aedan looked at Máire. She smiled and walked to his mother. She gently, lovingly, took his mother’s hand and pulled her to a standing position.

  The mysterious friends led the two O’Beirne’s to front-row seats.

  Máire looked at Aedan—she smiled with warmth and love.

  “We will see you again one day,” Michael said. He smiled as he placed his right hand on little Aedan’s left shoulder. He turned to the front of the room where a Catholic Priest began to say something about a funeral Mass.

  To his surprise, his body shook as if a stiff wind buffeted him.

  Back and forth, his frame oscillated.

  Again, his body shook.

  Noises entered his mental time world. He heard someone speaking, but he could not decipher the words. A harsh pounding on his left shoulder grabbed his attention, followed by further speaking he could not understand. Several additional shoulder poundings later, his mind burst forth into the real world. His eyes focused on Jacob, the young guard’s face fixed in concern as he repeatedly, and forcefully, tapped Aedan’s shoulder.

  “Mr. O’Beirne, Mr. O’Beirne…where did you go? You left me for a few seconds there.” His face filled with relief.

  “A few seconds?”

  “Yes, you were going to tell me about Connor, and then you froze for several seconds.”

  “What? No way—there’s no way I was gone for only seconds; it seemed like a half hour.” His attention drifted away from Jacob. He grinned; it was a pleasant look of gratitude. He had the sense that a massive weight lifted from his mind as if something had set him free after years of pain.

  Now I know why their smiles mean so much to me; they pulled me away from my pain. I never did remember how I got away from Grandpapa’s watch, not until now.

  “Please, Mr. O’Beirne, tell me about Connor.”

  He looked at the night guard. “Oh Jacob, I hope you get a chance to know our Connor. He is a terrific kid. He’s smart, funny, structured, and yet creative too. He’s five years old, and he thinks I’m a superhero, and yet at the same time he’s a pure reflection of his mother,” he said with anxiety. “He will be something special in this life, unique. I love him so much it makes my heart pound with pain wondering what’s happened to him. I’d do anything to help him and his mother.” His head slumped to his knees.

  He looked at Jacob. “I want to see him again. I want to hold him again. I want my family back. I’ve been such an idiot…I’ve been blessed beyond measure and I couldn’t see it through my desire for ball games and bars and city nightlife.” He swung his arms over his head in an act of frustration and emotional pain. His arms made contact with the outer wall window glass, which vibrated against his hands.

  “Aedan?” He held a warm, almost gentle, expression. “Are you ready to let go and trust?”

  “Yes, of course.” He looked at Jacob, as he pounded on the glass. He relaxed and his facial color returned to normal from an intense emotional red hue. He pulled his arms away from the window and lowered them to his side. He took deep breaths. “Thank you, there is much more to you than I thought.”

  “You mean there is more to me than a chubby, irresponsible, punk college kid you thought I was?” He chuckled.

  “Yes, that sums it up.” He laughed. He smacked Jacob on the back.

  “I am glad you have decided to let go and trust. Because since you are now far more relaxed, I was wondering if you have seen the painting hanging on the wall to your right? It is one of my favorites.” Jacob pointed.

  Aedan stood, and using a flashlight, he examined the image. The picture displayed a view of downtown Chicago from somewhere on Lake Michigan. He noticed that the piece came from the time when the forty-story Trenton Tower soared above everything else standing along Michigan Avenue. Beyond that structure, a cloud ridge with a reddish area appeared to reflect or echo something from below. He looked at Jacob. “What is this doing here?”

  “It’s a painting donated by a friend of the Medical Center. Dr. Miller loved the old-fashioned feel of the piece. I have to say, I agree with her.”

  A bright light flashed across the hallway; it entered the tower through the large window a scant twelve inches from the painting. Aedan peered through the window, looking to the west. He observed a second structure, in near total darkness, seventy-five feet from the main tower. “What is that building?” His voice filled with surprise.

  “That’s building number one,” Jacob said.

  Aedan looked shocked.

  “You didn’t know there are two buildings?”

  “Oh, come on, Jacob. How could I have known? Tell me about it; tell me now.” His excitement rose while at the same time he internally chastised himself for not having driven along Asher Avenue before he entered the new tower. He felt like a fool, making one mistake after another throughout his search for his family. Yet, he had not seen the narrow dark tower, even when he had looked west to the parking garage. A surge of nausea raced through him, knowing he might have placed his family in jeopardy with his blunders.

  It’s not visible from Franklin; how was I to know?

  “That’s the original medical center, constructed in 1945. It has twenty-one stories while this tower has thirty-five. That edifice is square, one-hundred and twenty feet on each side, while this building is rectangular, two-hundred feet wide by one hundred and fifty feet deep. The architect moved to Chicago from New York. He liked the Empire State Building so much he decided to use the same Indiana Limestone panels at this site, to cover the exterior. If you shine your flashlight, you will see the grayish facade,” Jacob said.

  “Is it used anymore?” He aimed the light at the building. The beams barely illuminated the surface.

  “Fifty doctors used it until Wednesday morning.”

  He looked stunned. “What happened Wednesday morning?”

  “A massive gas explosion from somewhere in the middle of the building wrecked the structure. The concussion slammed the ten highest floors the hardest, with the explosion bursting through the roof. You can see the yellow police tape surrounding the base of the building. It took hours for the Fire Department to put out the blaze. No one died, but the emergency crews took one-hundred people to local hospitals. They said there would have been far more injuries if this were not a holiday week. They shut down this new tower because the fire was so close. We reopened yesterday afternoon.”

  “What’s the address for that building?”

  “The same as this tower: thirty-nine-sixty North Franklin Street, number one. It was the original building at this address and it’s scheduled for complete demolition next year so the developers can construct another tower in its place to complete the Medical Center campus,” Jacob said.

  Aedan frowned. He looked, again, with anguish, at the painting on the wall. He recalled standing outside the Douglas Hotel, where he had suspected, even then, that the red clouds were significant.

  “You must have been completely disconnected this week to not know about the fire, it was all over the news. I assumed you knew what happened to number one. I would have told you in the lobby if I knew your full story. It’s been a freaky time between the bad accident on the highway, the rough snowstorm in the Loop, and the destruction of number one, what a week this has been. And the fire took all day to put out because pockets of gas in the building kept flaring up; the firemen were there well beyond midnight that day.”

  He grabbed Jacob by shoulders, and with joy, he shook the young man back-and-forth. “Don’t you know what this means?”

  “No.” He looked confused.

  “Ciara and Connor are in that building, somewhere.”

  “What? How? We’re in Dr. Miller’s offices now?” Jacob said.

  “Don’t you understand? The doctor’s business card does not state a building number; it only contains the street address. Ciara has never been in the downtown office. She goes to the suburban office close to our home in Oak Valley. She didn’t know the correct office is in this new building, number two. She entered the wrong building and the explosion happened while she was in there.” He looked joyful and excited.

  Jacob looked sad. “But, if, if that’s true, they probably died in the explosion. The explosive concussion was so powerful it destroyed the elevator shaft all the way to the roof. I’m sorry; I don’t see how they could have survived.”

  “No—I know they are alive. I have two friends who have helped me all along and they would not have helped me if Ciara and Connor could not be saved. I have little time left to find them. I should have thought of searching for a building with a fire much sooner; I should have found them already. I am risking their lives by wasting time in this tower.”

  “No, Mr. O’Beirne, you do not know the path or the steps required in your journey to find your family. If you try to avoid taking any of those steps, you might not reach your final location and destiny.”

  “That is true, Jacob, quite right.” Aedan grinned; his demeanor having risen to near euphoria as he stared at the charred building through the wide window. He pulled out his cell phone. He sent a coded numerical text message to Eddie. He looked at his watch; it was 10:40pm on Friday. He had eighty moments left.

  He dropped the tire iron and began walking toward the suite entrance where he would leave the offices. He turned back to Jacob. “Well, my move to break the keys inside the exit door locks doesn’t matter anymore.” He laughed. “Come on, join me, you don’t want to miss this. I have to give myself up to the police so I can rescue my family before it’s too late.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  DESIRING ARREST

  * * *

  Aedan entered the stairwell and found a large contingent of Chicago Police Officers, in full protective gear, their weapons aimed at him. He laughed and stretched his arms well above his head. “Hi fellas, I’m the man you’re after. I’m not armed, and I will cooperate.” He beamed; his mood had risen since seeing building number one. He looked hopeful and confident—a near miraculous change in a brief period.

  “Don’t move,” Officer Wilson said. He aimed his weapon at Aedan.

  “I won’t run. I understand the situation.” He pointed to the doorway. “This is Jacob Schultz; he is the night guard; he’s not to blame for me getting into the building. I forced him to join my search to find my wife and son.”

  Bellson made his way through the armored police.

  “Hello Detective, I was wondering where you were. I knew you wouldn’t miss the fun of arresting me.” Aedan laughed.

  “I see you haven’t found your family, as I expected,” Bellson said.

  His demeanor became serious, almost threatening. “Bellson you are a piece of work. You know I’ve been working almost non-stop to find them. They weren’t here in this tower, but I know where they are.”

  “Yeah, how many times have you said that in the last two days? I’ve heard enough, O’Beirne,” Bellson said. He looked at Officer Wilson. “Cuff him.”

  Officer Wilson pulled Aedan’s arms behind his back and cuffed him.

  The stairwell power returned, flooding the group with bright LED rays.

  “Hey, Ghost got the lights on,” Bellson said. He looked at Aedan. “You’ve been a real pain, O’Beirne. Breaking into this building and then taking the guard hostage will not be good for you. I don’t get it, you seemed rational enough; why did you crack and do something so stupid?”

  “Detective, don’t you understand I’m trying to find my family and that I’ve been running on empty for the last couple days? I don’t have much time left to find them. I don’t want you holding me back. I said I know where they are, and you don’t seem the least interested in finding out if I’m correct. I’ve told you over-and-over, I’m looking for my wife and son. When are you going to start believing they are missing?”

  “Oh, we believe you; we know they’re missing. We have worked hard digging into your background, and we have talked to almost everyone you know. We also called Metric & Inch where you work,” Bellson said.

  “I’m glad you’re earning your salary.” Aedan flashed a sarcastic grin. “I’d hate to know you were wasting taxpayer dollars. What good does it all do if it doesn’t help me find my family? All your work has proved worthless.”

  “We’ll see,” Bellson said. He glared at Jacob. “You, idiot guard, get out of the way so we can enter the floor.”

  Jacob stepped through the door and onto the main floor, clearing the path for the police.

  Bellson pushed Aedan through the exit door and onto the twentieth floor. He looked back to Officer Wilson. “Now that the power is back, have them release the elevators so we can get back down without taking the stairs.”

  “Detective—why won’t you consider what I’m telling you?” He glared at him. “I want to find my family.”

  Aedan groaned as Officer Wilson pulled him across the lobby to the exit door on the south side.

  “Sir, I have a car waiting on the plaza,” Officer Wilson said. “Should I put him in the car?”

  “No,” Bellson said. “Put O’Beirne in the south conference room.”

  “Why?” Aedan shouted. “What do you want from me?” His concern swelled; every minute mattered. He looked at his watch; it was 10:50pm. He had seventy moments left. His mind flooded with worry. He barely noticed Bellson shoving him into a chair with high force. His left arm reminded him his injuries had not healed, but he no longer cared about the pain; he had to get into the burned building.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26