Durham, Roman, Mason or whatever anyone chose to call him, put the heels of his feet on the coffee table and leaned back in his chair. He chewed on fries, surfed through TV channels and watched the newscast for the fourth time in one evening. Nothing had changed. For sixteen straight hours every bit of free broadcasts had been on the fire and the ‘tragic’ end of six guiding lights in the community. No matter what channel or news outlet he turned to no one gave even a small inkling of believing the explosion and burning of the cabin in the woods was more than a freak accident. The main focus had been on the personal lives of the men killed in the explosion. They were being heralded and recognized for the good they had performed in society. Cried over by the wives who were obviously still unaware of the evil that had been removed from their midst.
When would the truth come to the surface? What had Penny and her husband done with the information he had given them? Had he wasted his time? Promising himself to put the word out on the hidden activities of the Six on Top and if nothing was mentioned within the next eight hours, Durham wiped the grease and salt from his fingertips to the front of his jeans and was in the act of flicking off the television when he spied a familiar face in the crowd of investigators searching through the rubble of the burnt out building, Mason Valhoun. He would know him anywhere. His old buddy in salvation and his superhero counterpart. From the ragged scar on his cheek to his deceptively casual stance, nothing about the guy had changed. But wait a minute; stuffing the last bit of fries in his mouth he dropped his feet to the floor and leaned closer to the television’s screen. He read the banner under Mason’s image, the thump of the wooden chair’s legs barely registering through the shock in his brain. Whoa, had Joshua changed his name? Not that it mattered, he had changed his own many times, but it had not changed the person he was. But, what cruel act of faith would strike and make him Penny’s husband? What in hell. How had he missed that fact? He admonished himself for his lax in investigation. His job was not a place for haphazard mistakes. Hopefully Penny didn’t have an urge to confide everything to her husband or she would be up a damned creek and on her own because he had driven twelve straight hours across the country to be as far away as possible from the area. Besides, there would be no way to even tie him to anything. Penny didn’t know his real name or even what he really looked like. Hell he had almost forgotten what he really looked like.
Once the braided extensions had been removed, brown contacts flushed down the toilet, and dark hued theater makeup removed from his skin he didn’t resemble the man named Durham one little bit. He looked in the mirror over the sofa table and rubbed the short reddish-brown curls on the top of his head. The dyed hair did a terrific job of changing his appearance. Add the natural hazel colored eyes and he now looked as if the name Mason could really belong to him. A great new look for a person who may have to make a comeback. I wonder what Joshua Brooke will think of that?
0 comments:
Post a Comment